MICHAUX, François-Andre (1770-1855). -- NUTTALL, Thomas (1786-1859). The North American Sylva; or, A Description of the Forest Trees of the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia. Philadelphia: D. Rice & A.N. Hart, 1859. 5 volumes, large 8vo (265 x 175 mm). 277 hand-colored engraved or lithographed plates, additional engraved frontispiece portrait of Michaux in vol. I. (Occasional spotting, small wormhole in upper corner of a few leaves in vol. II of the Nuttall.) ORIGINAL DELUXE PUBLISHER'S BLIND-STAMPED BROWN MOROCCO, spines gilt-lettered, edges gilt (a few discreet repairs to joints, very slight rubbing to a few extremities). Provenance: Donald Scott (bookplate). Later edition. "Few American color plate books had such lasting popularity as this classic work on American trees, or as tangled a publication history... In 1856 a fire destroyed the premises of the publisher of the joint edition. The Michaux plates were saved, but the Nuttall stones were evidently lost, and the later joint editions used new stones" (Reese, Stamped with a National Character: Nineteenth Century American Color Plate Books 21). Sabin 48695 & 56351 ("Of the two works united, it is no exaggeration to remark that it is the most complete work of its kind and is a production of unrivaled interest and beauty").